Translation of Codex Sinaiticus
When the Codex Sinaiticus website was launched in July 2008, it only featured translations of the first thirty-five Psalms in English and the book of Esther in German. Drawing on his own English translation in A New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS, see below), Albert Pietersma revised the the translation of the thirty-five Psalms for the Codex Sinaiticus website. Reinhold Scholl and Nadine Quenouille adapted the German translation of Esther from the Septuaginta Deutsch (LXX.D, see below). A strategy to increase the number of translations offered on the website is in place.
English translation
Oxford University Press has granted the Codex Sinaiticus Project permission to approach the translators of A New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS) and ask them to adapt their translation to the text of Codex Sinaiticus. NETS is the fruit of a collaboration of scholars specialising in Septuagint Studies. These scholars worked under the aegis of The International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSCS) to produce an outstanding translation of the Jewish Scriptures/Old Testament in Greek. The Greek translation of the NETS is based on published editions reconstructing an earliest text from all relevant manuscript sources. Since the text of Codex Sinaiticus often differs from those editions, the NETS translation has to be adapted to represent the wording of Codex Sinaiticus.
The details of NETS are:
A New English Translation of the Septuagint and the other Greek translations traditionally included under that title, edited by Albert Pietersma and Benjamin G. Wright, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. (ISBN13: 978-0-19-528975-6; ISBN10: 0-19-528975-7)
It can be ordered via the Oxford University Press website for the USA.
Negotiations with individual translators are ongoing and the Codex Sinaiticus Project is very grateful to the editors, Albert Pietersma and Benjamin G. Wright, for their support, and to the following translators for agreeing to adapt their NETS translation to the text of Codex Sinaiticus:
- Cameron Boyd-Taylor (Judith)
- Johann Cook (Proverbs)
- Karen Jobes (Esther)
- Melvin K. H. Peters (Deuteronomy)
- Albert Pietersma (Psalms)
- Glenn Wooden (2 Esdras)
NETS translators of other books from the Septuagint are being approached.
The Project is also looking into ways of providing a translation of the New Testament into English.
German translation
The Project is in discussion with the German Bible Society (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft) in the hope that translators working on the Septuaginta Deutsch Project (LXX.D) may be willing to adapt their translation to the text of Codex Sinaiticus. Similar to NETS, Septuaginta Deutsch is a project, initiated by Wolfgang Kraus and Martin Karrer, to translate the Greek Old Testament into German. The German translation will soon be published by The German Bible Society.
